“The Thing and The Wing” symbolizes a state of mobility, distortion and flows, a certain mood and a programmatic openness and non-dogmatic definitions.
Loose architecture made of steel and translucent polymorph surfaces and bodies temporarily captures one possible state of the flow simulation.
Virtual view-lines are distorted and atmospheric effects are used as parameters or behaviors for simulations (wind, noise, fluid, gas). These interact with the actual movements of the (car) drivers.
Consequently, the installation is not programmatically tied to the individual events of the “Cultural Capital Graz 2003”, but conveys a general mood the whole year over – an exciting atmosphere.
The Wing consists of several layers and is an information carrier, an aerodynamic structure, which you pass and due to the velocity perceive only abstractly.
The Thing is an object you perceive from the distance and approach over a longer period of time – regarded symbolically, a relationship comparable to the one between the Herrengasse (facade) and the Uhrturm (vertical symbol) in Graz, for example.
The two sculptures, horizontal and vertical, are linked together conceptually, forming a unit (merging through speed) only through the perception of the drivers (spatial lengthening).
The two elements describe no locality but instead a movement in time and are dislocated.
Directly along the highway, in close proximity to the airport, they act as dynamic vectors.
The traffic concept stands for the circulation of ideas and theories.
The motion is not to be understood merely as a function, you realize it as an inner experience.
The charm of this infrastructural thinking lies in its premise that subjectivity discards the final explanation and takes the object as departure point.